What do you do with your business profits? We’re talking profits today. If you’ve looked at the cost summary of a job in PEP this week, you may have noticed a new line for gross profit. Gross profit is everything that isn’t raw wages or materials. Some of that gross profit will go to pay business operating expenses (insurance, rent, loans, advertising, etc.). What’s left after paying those expenses is your net profit. So what do you do with your business profits? Pay yourself? Go on vacation? Put the money back into the business? The list of what you can do with your business profits is endless. Here are 3 suggestions to consider: 3 Ways to Invest Business Profits 1. Savings. Cash flow can be an issue for seasonal businesses. Poor cash flow can lead to bad business decisions, like dropping your price to close a sale. Putting money into a savings account will ensure you have cash down the road when you need it. 2. Put profits back into the business. That could mean replacing tools, upgrading equipment or technology, buying another vehicle, or trying a new advertising campaign. Anything that will improve productivity or attract new quality leads is a worthwhile investment. 3. Invest in your employees. Spend some of the business profits on employee training; you’ll end up with more productive employees. Or consider giving your employees a raise. Raises validate the hard work they do and lead to happy, loyal employees. Clients will notice their competence and confidence (and that’s great for your company brand). Don’t rely on net profits to pay...

Every painter I’ve talked to in the last few weeks is moving at a hundred miles an hour. Anything we can do to simplify or speed-up tasks is welcome. Email reinvented how we communicate with clients and potential customers. But it’s also become overwhelming. Any reply is better than no reply. Say a new client wants you to make changes to an estimate. You want to quickly respond to let them know you’re working on it (you can follow-up with the changes later). With the need for fast, concise responses in mind, here are two email tools that can help you communicate better: 1. For Gmail users: Smart Reply This feature popped up on my phone a few weeks ago. Smart Reply suggests 3 responses based on the content of the email received. Choose one and a reply email will open with the selected text already there. You can edit it, add to, or just click send. 2. For PEP users: Automated eBid Campaigns Use an automated customer follow-up campaign to solve the problem of remembering to touch base with clients after you send them an eBid. Just set it and forget it. Your customer will receive the emails in the campaign sequence automatically. You can also set up a “Thank You” email to automatically send when the eBid is accepted. Check out this post for video...